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It’s offering preference shareholders 12% more to bring them into a domination agreement it says it never needed in the first place. Yet the price it’s offering won’t put an end to its legal wrangles, though it’s guaranteed to anger supportive shareholders in the process.

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Procter & Gamble yesterday sought to end its long running row with minority shareholders in Wella the German hair products group it bought last year.

Since the deal its largest ever foreign takeover the US group has faced a number of challenges from minority investors in Wella preference shares who refused to sell out, claiming that P&G had shortchanged them.

P&G is to make a new offer to minority shareholders in Wella at a potential cost of E900m. The E72.86 offer for each nonvoting preference share in the German hair products company is 12% higher than the E65 the US group offered last year.

P&G also said it would enter into a socalled "domination agreement" under German law in order to integrate Wella. Under such an agreement, an acquirer agrees to buy out minority shareholders for a courtapproved price or to pay them a guaranteed dividend if they choose to hold on to their shares. In return, it gets unfettered control over the company.

Wella shareholders welcomed the move but said that the price set by reference to the average price of Wella preference shares over the past three months was not high enough. The preference shares currently trade at about E77 each.